Ten Things Cookie Bakers Really Ought to Know

Tips for Cookie Baking

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For better organization and enjoyment (and a delicious product!), follow these 10 tips for cookie baking.

Organize! Clear your work area before you begin, and get out all the ingredients. Put each one away as you use it, so you don’t forget what you’ve used. Rinse bowls and utensils as you go.

Read the recipe through before you do anything. As you read, check your supply of staples (flour, sugar, butter) and watch for any unusual steps. For example, if the dough has to chill for 12 hours, you should know this before you start, in case you need the cookies by noon today.

Insist on good fresh ingredients. Spices lose their flavor over time; if you’ve had them around since last December, replace them. Unsalted (“sweet”) butter is preferable to salted; it is usually cleaner, sweeter, and fresher than salted butter.

If you forget to soften your butter ahead of time, cut the stick(s) into thin pats and place them on a room-temperature plate. Leave in a warmish spot for 10 minutes or so, until the butter yields to gentle finger pressure. It doesn’t have to be squishy soft.

When a recipe calls for toasted nuts (incidentally, that’s 8–10 minutes in a 350ºF oven), make sure they’re thoroughly cooled before adding them to dough.

If you don’t already own them, buy yourself a couple of good baking sheets. Thin, flimsy sheets don’t diffuse heat well or evenly and can result in scorched cookie bottoms. Tinned steel and anodized aluminum are two good material choices that will last.

Generally speaking, bake only one sheet of cookies at a time, on the center rack. This allows for the most-even baking.

If you own only one cookie sheet, cool it to room temperature between batches. This prevents the butter from melting out of the dough and puddling up on the sheet.

As a rule, let cookies cool on the baking sheet for 1 or 2 minutes, just long enough to firm them slightly and make it easier to slide them off the sheet and onto a rack.

And here’s a shipping tip! Most cookies ship well. For best results, however, choose a relatively firm or dense type of cookie. Wrap cookies individually in waxed paper and pack them snugly in a tin. Pack the tin inside a bigger box, cushioned on all sides with additional waxed paper. And it never hurts to be nice to the postal clerk!

Enjoy this video demonstrating some of the cooking baking tips—and get into the spirit!

...I laugh to myself that

...I laugh to myself that many of the cookie tips I having been doing naturally over the years....it made feel so good inside like my cookies !!! I still enjoy making my cookies from scratch and other foods !!! Enjoy !!!

Do not store any "food" in

Do not store any "food" in egg cartons. Even egg producers will tell you, they can contain salmonella from broken eggs. Food producers now say NOT to taste uncooked batter because of those concerns, and more cooks are coming down with food sicknesses who do taste uncooked batters -- particularly store-bought cookie dough, etc. Some have died of it! Personally, I have always tasted my cookie (and even cake) batters. But today is different! Also, if any recipe calls for soy flour -- DO NOT TASTE! It TASTES hideous! But once it's cooked, it's good!...... Tips from a longtime cook and former food editor for a small-town newspaper.

These are great tips, they've

These are great tips, they've really improved my at-home cookie baking. I especially appreciate Rennie's question, because I thought I would never master high altitude baking. Of course, right when I did start to get the hang of it we moved to a lower altitude. But at least I know I can do it, now! Thiago | http://www.cookiefactoryspringfield.com

Anyone got any tips for high

Anyone got any tips for high altitude baking of cookies. I was once the queen of cookies but we moved to a mountainous area a little over a year ago and I have not been able to make a decent cookie. They always turn out very flat. Taste is ok but they look hideous. I have not run across any cookie recipe that has adjustments for baking cookies. Any help would be really appreciated. davren2@gmail.com

When my children were small,

When my children were small, we'd spend many hours every Christmas season baking and decorating sugar cookies and gingerbread cookies to share as gifts and to enjoy ourselves. Before baking, I'd use a plastic drinking straw to poke a hole in the top of the cookie. Once baked, I'd string with Christmas ribbon and hang on the tree. This made the Christmas tree safer and more accessible to even the smallest children in our home.

I read a tip somewhere, maybe

I read a tip somewhere, maybe a cookie cookbook, that said to take a dish towel and wipe down your cookie sheets between each batch that it will help prevent the cookies from sticking.I've been doing it since I read it all those years ago and it works great! No sprays needed.

Some excellent tips! By the

Some excellent tips! By the way, that tip regarding organizing your ingredients before you start and putting away each ingredient as soon as you've used it applies to baking ANYTHING, not just cookies. :)

If you forget to soften your butter in advance and you're in a hurry, nuke it in the microwave for a few seconds. (Caution! If your butter stick is wrapped in foil, remove the wrapper BEFORE you put it in the microwave, otherwise you'll get arcing, you know, that scary flash of "lightning bolts.") Another way to save a bit of time is to mix together as many of the dry ingredients in advance as possible and store the mixture in a storage container with a lid. (I use large margarine containers that have been cleaned out.)

If you prefer your cookies soft and chewy rather than crispy and crumbly, as I do, bake them at 300 degrees for about 25 minutes.

I'm not a big fan of using parchment paper myself. I prefer using my trusty Baker's Joy baking spray. (PAM has their own version of Baker's Joy now, but it's more expensive.) I'm not so lazy that I either can't or won't clean off a baking sheet.

This is true. These are

I have discovered that you

I have discovered that you can actually make your cookies in advance, but not bake them. This works well with firm dough type cookies. I put them on the pan but instead of putting them in the oven I freeze them and then put them into freezer bags. Then I take them out when I am ready to bake them and put them back on the pan and into the oven. Fresh baked cookies but without the mess and stress at the holidays. We make the dough on rainy days during the summer. I also do this with my apple pies. Line the pie plate with foil, then the bottom crust, add the pie filling and top with the second crust, then freeze. Remove the whole thing from the pie plate, wrap well and return to the freezer. When ready to bake, remove all the wrapping, pop it back into the pie plate and bake. Yum!

I love this time saver too!

I love this time saver too! I also cut up small pieces of parchment paper to insert between each frozen cookie before storing them in the freezer bag. That helps facilitate pulling them apart when preparing to bake them. And the parchment pieces can be stored in the empty freezer bag (I just put it back into the freezer) to be used for the next batch of cookies.

Because my parents always

Because my parents always bought apples by the bushel from a nearby orchard each fall, my mother learned how to bake her wonderful apple pies and freeze them (and my Dad, who loved those pies helped by peeling apples for her!). She baked them just as usual at 425 degrees for the first 10 minutes, then reduced the temperature and baked them half the prescribed remaining time, usually 20 minutes (40 minutes total). After freezing, simply return the pie to the oven at 350 degrees and bake until warmed! They were delicious! Now that she's gone, I try to imitate how Mom made her pies!